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bibbles and dribbles…

I’ve been reading quite a bit lately while finishing up "Blaze of Glory" and starting to send it out. Received a nice rejection from the agent who requested a partial, but that’s fine – I don’t expect that in this economy with publishers pulling back from taking too many risks that a superhero novel is going to be a hot commodity… yet. I’m sure it’ll find a home soon enough!

Some of what I’ve read and enjoyed/not enjoyed:

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling – I figured that since I was hanging out in a steampunk sim in Second Life and enjoying it that I’d see what the original start to the craze was all about… but I wasn’t impressed. Maybe it’s because it was published over a decade ago and so many other books have come out since then, but it just didn’t work for me. Weak female characters, a few sex scenes that really didn’t do much for the book and a lot of confusion along the way and it was a rough read. But that’s just my take; obviously it’s become one of the staples of steampunk and I can see that when it was first published it would have been a shock to the system and generated a lot of imagination from other authors.

1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies – I picked this up on a whim after seeing a show on the History Channel about the Great Fleets of China that were sent out and mapped a whole lot more of the world than we first thought – and then were recalled to China and destroyed, along with many of their records as the country went back into seclusion for centuries afterwards. As you can guess from the title the proposal that many of the native people in the Americas have Chinese blood may be a heck of a leap, but you can’t really dismiss the evidence he gives for their navigation across the oceans long before those pesky Europeans got around to it. Given that the Chinese culture has lasted a heck of a lot longer than our own Western one, I don’t find it surprising that they may have done much more than we first thought. Still working through it but an interesting read if you want something VERY different from what you were taught in school.

Undead on Arrival by L.A. Banks – Part of her Shadow Wolf series, I’m snapping this up as soon as it gets on the shelves – it’s a great new series that puts a different spin on the usual werewolf storyline with excellent characters that you just fall in love with as soon as you open the book. I’m hoping she spins this into a long, long series ’cause I just can’t get enough of Sasha Trudeau and Hunter. Now if she could only do a crossover with Patricia Briggs…

Red Kiss by Deidre Knight – A sequel to her first Gods of Midnight book, Red Fire, this is a series that’s also on my hit list. Immortal Spartans? I’m SO there, baby! Add in some great writing, hot men and a lot of mythology and it’s an excellent read for those of you who are sick of the usual paranormal stuff.

As you can tell, I read a lot of genres.

*smirks*

And, thanks to my newest issue of Scifaikuest I’m looking into a new poetry form – the Threesome.

No, not THAT. Although I’ll put in a vote for ANY Lauren Dane book thanks to her ability to make me believe that threesomes can work… but I digress.

A Threesome is a new type of poetry form where you basically create a Sudoku puzzle with words. That makes sense. Think about it… I’m looking forward to trying to riddle this out!

it just didn’t work for me… partially because of the many characters floating around and that I just didn’t connect with any of them.
as well, the portrayal of Byron’s daughter didn’t sit too well with me.
*shrugs*

it just didn’t work for me… partially because of the many characters floating around and that I just didn’t connect with any of them.
as well, the portrayal of Byron’s daughter didn’t sit too well with me.
*shrugs*